Nascar Bearcat Portable Scanner

This scanner works great. I read the reviews and was a little leery of being able to program it. My daughter and I did it together, there was a step that wasn't printed in the instruction book, we had to hit the Hold button twice to where it'd clear the programed code that was showing on the screen to enter the new code. But once we figured that out it was a breeze. I was able to get the scanner codes off the Internet at [...], go to their site and click on your state and open up which ones you want to program. I live in a rural area and it picks up real well. I like being able to hear what's going on in my neighborhood. I received it fast, about 4 days, through Amazons free shipping. I live in Hawaii.
I have not been disappointed with the items I've purchased through Amazon as of yet and the reviews help me make my decisions on my purchases.

Jumping through the function modes to access features while scanning is a big pain in the butt! By the time you get the feature or mode you want, the action you wanted to catch is almost done. Whoever designed this rarely did any actual emergency scanning. It's a terrible design & un-intuitive.

The speaker is loud enough in a quiet room if the person is speaking loud & clear close to the microphone at 100% modulation. Unfortunately most of the people talking are mumbling, quiet, or talk with the microphone a foot or more from their mouth, so it's lacking a lot in audio gain & volume for most people. If a room has a lot of ambient noise, you may still hear the radio, but can't understand anything anyone is saying on the radio unless you're sitting right next to it.

Now for the good news.

For the price you do get a lot of good, cool, stuff, features, & memory/channels. It's small, & easy to carry.

My 2500mah batteries I use in it last a very long time, so it's efficient.

It's triple conversion, so less interference & noise.

So it's a pain to use, not practical or loud, but can serve well as a cheap basic scanner as long as you're not an enthusiast about it, or need to change modes, functions, or programs in a hurry.

It does everything the reviews said it would. I am not into scanning the way some people are. Just recreational use. Aircraft is interesting to me so this works great around the big airports. Handy little unit for the price. I don't use the pc programmable feature but I'm sure it works fine.

This is a great small portable scanner, I found it really easy to program (with out the software and cable thats available to purchase from Uniden) Gets great reception and sound is clear. I can pick up Police calls from (No LIE!!) 23 miles away! I do reccomend this scanner.

Update! 3/13/09

Purchased the Uniden software and USB-1 cord to program scanner with a ton of frequency's instead of doing it manually. The software and Cord make it so much easier and quicker to load up the scanner. If you don't have many frequency to program into it you do not need it but I was so curiouse on how much easier it would make it and man its a breeze!! Love the scanner even more now!!!! Loved it before though. Take care.

BEST FEATURES? That it gets the 800 frequencies and its compact size.
WORST FEATURES? Too many steps to do stuff, too few buttons (replaced with "Function" button), on/off switch is NOT in the volume control as other scanners usally are.
RECOMMEND TO FIRST-TIME SCANNER BUYER? Most definately!
RECOMMEND TO PREVIOUS SCANNER OWNERS? No way! (You'll understand if you buy one.)

I've owned tons of hand-held scanners since the 60's, and this one has to be the most complicated one I've had when it comes to a few simple features. Searching can be a nightmare to get started. Most scanners only take the simple push of one button to instantly lock out a channel. Not this one: you have to first push the Function button, then Lockout. Anytime you have to push TWO buttons to operate a feature only makes it more complicated to use, especially in the dark. Even with a few other functions there are far too many buttons to press and steps to take. I think Uniden should have just put more buttons on it rather than make a "function" button. Heck, 1 more row of 4 buttons would have solve so many issues! The USB plug is a cool feature if I buy the program, but it seems like adding more complications to an already complicated item. I don't like having an On/Off button in front. I'm used to every scanner I've ever owned only taking a simple turn of the volume knob to turn on or off and this one is far from this easy. It does what it was designed to do: it scans. Not the finest sound quality I've heard. I think the best feature is the compact size. I ride a motorcycle and love having a scanner stuffed into my inside pocket with an earplug in my ear, and this one is perfect for this! I've always dreamed of the day when Uniden or Radio Shack would invent stubby antennaes for scanners (like 3-4 inches would be ideal). Don't get me wrong, I like this scanner and it was an excellent price for a scanner with so many channels. I would possibly recommend this scanner to a friend, but would certainly not buy another one in the future. I'll stick with my old Bearcat 100-channel or my Radio Shack 200-channel, both hand-helds. I only bought this one because of its compact size, which is about the only thing about it that I like so far. As for the reason it eats batteries so fast is because there is only 2. Every scanner I've owned that used only 2 batteries went through them fast! I usually try to find one that uses 4, then pack extra batteries along with me in my car or storage bag.

Many of you will no doubt disagree with my review. That's to be expected. But as I said, I've owned almost every brand of hand-held scanner ever made in the last 40+ years and THIS one has to be the most complicated to operate. Too many buttons to press/steps to take just to do 1 thing.

BUT: I will no doubt purchase Uniden again in the future because, in my opinion, they DO make the BEST scanners out there! Of the probably 15-20 Uniden scanners I've owned, mostly hand-held, THIS ONE is the most complicated to use and has the worst features and power button.

GREAT SCANNER for the first-time scanner buyer! Yes, it scans and searches. Yes, it's compact in size. But for us old scanner enthusiasts from back over the years I believe it's one to avoid.